AneB
Difficulty:  | Review Topic: Port of Entry Review
Everything was very smooth for me at the Tampa airport. My fiance was with me and I brought my cat.
We had a connection flight at Panama and there was an extra security check there. I believe that's why the security at Tampa was very fast, with no lines. I don't know if it's the same when you come from other places.
We got to the airport and a lady speaking in english and spanish directed us for the non-citizen passport control line, which was really short. It was arround 5 minutes waiting only.
The first officer checked my passport, took a picture of me, asked for the address where I'm going to leave in the US and got my visa packet. She was very nice and laughed saying my packet was huge hahahah Then she gave my fiance's passport back to him and told me to follow her to a separated room. She told my fiance that he could go get out baggage and then come back to meet me in that room. I asked if my cat could go in with me, she said yes, told me to take a seat and handed my documents to another officer. There were two officers in that room, both very nice too, and a few other people (something arround 5). Apparently only I was there with a k1 visa, but I think it's their standard procedure for that type, because nothing seemed wrong to me at anytime.
My fiance couldn't get the baggage at that moment for some reason and came back to wait with me. We waited arround 20 minutes and the officer called me by my name. He asked if I could speak english, where I was comming from, If I had an address in the US to provide and If I was aware that if I didn't get married to my fiance in 90 my visa would be revoked. I responde everything and then he asked if he could speak to my fiance. I called him and, since he's asian, the officer asked me if he could speak english. So the officer asked him if he had a drivers licence and checked it, typed something on his computer and stamped my passport. In the meanwhile, some ladies that work in the airport arrived with some suitcases for us to see if ours were there, and they were.
Then the officer told us to pick it up and follow him to a separated area in the same room for security. He kept my packet and gave my passport to the security officer. This last officer said our luggage have been through x-ray before and he didn't need to check our carry-ons. He asked about my cat's documents, gave me my passport and said we could go home 😊
That's it! The whole process took less than 40 minutes and I was treated very well all the time.
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Port of Entry Member Review #17394
Entry Date: 2023-05-01